M42/43 is the most well known Messier Target since some of it is
visible with the Naked eye. This is the famous Orion nebula which
is centered on the middle star of the sword of Orion (this is a 4th
magnitude star). The nebula itself is at least one degree in angular
size and is probably the most photographed nebula there is. Here
we present two CCD images of it.
The black and white image was obtained using an ST6 Camera on a small
telescope. The color image was obtained on the 48-inch telescope
at Mt. Hopkins. The obtainer, Nelson Caldwell,
took CCD images through Red, Green and Blue filters and later
combined them to produce this image.